By
Ada Brownell
I covered one of the first seminars on the Human Genome Project,[i] for The Pueblo Chieftain in the early 1990s. Reporters from several Colorado newspapers were there.
An international team of researchers were mapping the genes
of humans and it was considered “one of the greatest feats of exploration in
history.” By 2003, experts could read the genetic blueprint for building a
human being. But did they miss anything?
Four years later, a new field, neurotheology, revealed our
Creator wrapped faith in our DNA, according to a CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007. Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author
of "Why We Believe What We Believe" told how the human brain processes
religion and spirituality.
Newberg says the brain’s frontal
lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention in
prayer and meditation.
The parietal lobe, located near the backs of our skulls, is the
seat of our sensory information. Newberg says it's involved in that feeling of
becoming part of something greater than oneself. The limbic system, nestled
deep in the brain’s center, regulates our emotions and it is responsible for
feelings of awe and joy.
He suggests brain scans may provide proof that our brains are
built to believe in God. He says there may be universal features of the human
mind that actually make it easier for us to believe in a higher power.
I remember one brain surgeon who reported stimulating some areas
of the brain caused a patient to react in ways that suggested religious
activity and faith.
Newberg has written several
books about the connection between the brain and the spiritual and a new book is
coming out later this year (2020).
Evidence shows we have a God-shaped void within us nothing
else can fill. People all over the world search for a
Supreme Being because of the emptiness inside them. If they haven’t heard the true
gospel or reject it, they worship the earth, animals, stars, the sun, an idol
they know is nothing but a figure humans created, or something else they devised
such as Humanism, turning unbelief into doctrine or worshiping the created
instead of the Creator.
I don’t know where the God-shaped space in us
resides, but I know inside each person is a mysterious place where supernatural
activities occur. If you’ve given your life to God, that’s the place where
you’ll discover unconditional love, unspeakable joy, faith, supernatural peace,
comfort, and biblical gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Supernatural joy is a phenomenon different from
happiness because it doesn’t depend on circumstances or people. Peter said when
a person believes in the Savior and repents of his sins, something amazing happens.
“…The genuineness of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom
having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing you
rejoice with ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’” (1 Peter 1:8 NKJ). In other
words, too- wonderful-to-describe joy, and only God can be the source.
The joy obviously is linked to awesome
knowledge Jesus is God’s only son, who rose from the dead and gives eternal
life (John 3:16).
The grief I experienced when we lost a daughter
to cancer felt like my insides had been ripped out. Yet, when I believed God’s
Word, the Comforter came and gave me supernatural peace and joy, and that’s
something unbelievers don’t have.
Humans have wrestled with death since Cain
killed his brother, Abel. The Apostle Paul gave amazing teaching in 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18 that everyone can use. He said, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those
who sleep in Jesus…For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead
in Christ will arise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall
always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
That fills perfectly the God-shaped space in us.
